Savior
by Oxidellic
Summary: OFF post-apocalypse AU. Slight gore and Batterie.
1. Chapter 1

**To those of you reading this story; a lot of stuff is going to be changed, as this is an AU story. I'll try to keep some things the same, but I can't guarantee it. Also, as I said in summary, there will be Batterie (The Batter/Zacharie) in this story. If you do not like this pairing, I advise you to not read on. Also, I update more frequently on my AO3. My username on AO3 is Oxidellic, just like on here. If you want to follow me on tumblr, go on ahead. ****Thank you all, and hope you enjoy the story. **

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Even before the world had fallen to ruin, the Batter never had been a man of many words. Aged at 16, the stoic, sandy-haired male often kept to himself. When he seldom spoke, his solemn, soft replies were usually just one worded answers or simple phrases. After being constantly mocked by his peers at school, having the labels of "freak" or "loner" being thrown carelessly at his face, it started to get to him. Sure, nobody had ever physically bullied him, but sometimes, just for a fleeting moment, he wished they had.

At least it would make him feel real.

Batter often felt like a lone minnow, swimming through the ocean without a purpose, destined to die all alone. People would pass or bump into him and not even acknowledge his presence. It was like he was invisible. It was like he didn't even exist...

But he did, Batter knew he was real. He felt pain, hope, love, just like anyone else. He was a human being, yet nobody ever treated him like one.

He felt so empty.

Since Batter had literally no friends, or social skills to make any whatsoever, he had often spent his days reading and/or writing. At one point he had even taken up playing baseball because his father insisted that he do something more "manly". Batter had been absolutely terrible at the sport, but he had kept at it, wanting to make his father proud for once in his life. So, every other day he would go out into his backyard, silver bat in hand, and swing frantically at the air, as his father pitched the ball fast and hard. Every time that Batter had missed (which had been every time), Batter's father would narrow his eyes and mutter expletives under his breath.

Batter's father was not a kind man, by any means. He was stiff, rugged, and liked to pick fights. He loved hearing screams of agony, loved the feel of warm, sticky blood running down his fists, and would laugh when people cried.

The teen knew better than to pick a fight with his dad, so he had avoided him as much as humanely possible. Most days, Batter would come home from school, and make a mad dash towards his room. Once safely inside, he would throw himself onto his warm, fluffy bed. Some days he would write his troubles away, some days he would get lost in a book, most days though, he would contemplate what he had done to deserve a lifestyle such as the one he had now.

Especially now...

Batter stood amidst the rubble of the world, fear swelling inside of his chest. Biting his lip hard enough to draw small, scarlet beads of blood, he clutched the bat with shaky, sweaty palms, and swung at the large, red eyed creature. Said creature reeled backwards, as the metal made contact with its deformed skull. It let out a bloodcurdling scream as it dropped onto the yellow pavement, a sickening sound of bones snapping. The creature laid there for a few moments, breathing heavily and eyeing the teen with hatred. It slowly rose, tremors racking through its massive body, and charged Batter full force. The lithe teen barely dodged the massive, black scaled animal as it swooshed past him, the gust of wind knocking his baseball cap from atop his head.

A few other survivors stood behind Batter, trembling. Some were yelling at him to hurry up and "purify" the creature, while others were curled up into their friends and lovers, sobbing quietly.

With one last hit of the bat, the creature dissolved into smoke. The teen gasped, his back turned on the crowd of survivors. He nearly dropped his bat he was shaking so badly. However, he knew that he couldn't let the crowd see how distraught he was; after all he had basically become their bodyguard. If they saw how pathetically weak he was being, they would probably go into a panicked frenzy, screaming about how, "they were no longer safe," or that they "had nobody to protect them anymore".

An older male, known as the Judge, approached the panicking teen, placing a deformed hand on the Batter's striped uniform. The man was no older than 30, with sporadic patches of snow white fur covering his tall, thin physique. He stared at Batter with flashing, golden eyes. The younger male sighed softly, turning around to face his friend. The Judge flashed all of his sharp, white teeth at Batter.

"Batter, my dear comrade, would you walk with me for a moment? I need to speak to you alone," the Judge spoke seriously, swishing his bushy tail back and forth.

It was kind of funny that only about 2 months ago the Batter had been considered an embarrassment to society, but now, he was considered the strong man of the group, almost Godlike in nature. He was the fighter, or "purifier" as everyone had called him.

And he was to be their savior.


	2. Chapter 2

**Filler chapter is filler...**

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Batter strode upon the lumpy dirt, a look of agitation painted onto his pale face.

"Stupid Judge, stupid quest… Why do I have to do this? I recall that a couple of weeks ago nobody wanted anything to do with me! They treated me like I was invisible. And now all of a sudden I'm supposed to be the hero! To save the very people that treated me like dirt! I-"

His rant was cut short when he suddenly slammed harshly into a large crooked sign. Batter toppled over backwards onto the dead grass, a hand rushing to cover his nose. The teen groaned, feeling a warm liquid dripping from it.

Only an hour into this stupid quest and I'm already bleeding... Fucking fantastic.

Batter cursed under his breath, still holding a white, blood stained sleeve to his face. He shakily got back onto his feet, a wave of nausea washing over him.

The sign was splattered in what appeared to be a layer of thick ash. Reluctantly, the teen wiped the sign clean with his free sleeve, revealing the simplistic, bold text for the teen to analyze with his dark, brown eyes.

The sign read Zone 1.

Batter frowned. His teachers had used to drone on about the different zones when he still had attended school, but Batter had never actually payed attention to these lessons. To be honest, Batter had actually never had been outside of his home zone.

However,it was still quite the shock to see this once most-likely, mighty zone, reduced to rubble. Sure, there were a few lone, deteriorating buildings in the distance, but surely nobody could be living in those horrid conditions.

Right?

The brown haired teen trudged across the desolate landscape, often tripping in potholes, but catching himself before he could fell.

Upon arriving at one of the large buildings, he heard feral growling coming from a nearby barn. Swallowing hard, Batter raised his metal weapon, ready to swing. His jagged breathing was the only sound for a few moments. The uncomfortable silence was suddenly broken by the sound of doors slamming open, claws ripping into the earth, and teeth gnashing loudly. The teen screamed in horror as a large hoard of deformed creatures stampeded towards him. There had to be at least 20 of them. There was no way he could kill all of them.

In a fit of desperation, Batter screwed his eyes shut and swung blindly as the dark scaly creatures came after him. He coughed violently, the powdery substance of the monster's remains drifting in the air.

Batter finally opened his eyes when he heard no more noise. He saw that his white uniform was now powdered in gray ash. He loosened his grip on his bat, which allowed the weapon to land on the ground with a soft thump. Batter sighed loudly, pressing a finger to his throbbing temple. To be honest, he was completely terrified of this quest. He knew that things were only going to get harder, and what if he died?

The thought hadn't crossed his mind until now. What if he did indeed die? Would anyone notice or care? Would someone come looking for him? Or would his body be left on the dead grass, as maggots consumed his rotting corpse?

Batter closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, in and out. This thinking wasn't going to get him anywhere, and he knew this. Yet he couldn't stop obsessing over it.

"I can do this... You can do this, Batter. You're calm..." The teen repeated to himself over and over, like a mantra.

His serenity was shattered when he heard a muffled sound behind him. Spinning around, his eyes widened as he spotted an old mine nearby. The teen gasped, realizing that the sounds coming from the dilapidated mine were not monster noises; They were human.

And with that, Batter dashed into the mine without a second thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Batter ran into another wall, but this time it was accompanied by the sound of expletives being thrown around. After falling to the ground with a loud thump, he propped himself up on one elbow, coughing on the dusty air particles that entered his mouth. Batter felt a warm substance trickling down the side of his head. He quietly moaned, pressing a hand to his tender ear.

After the pain had subsided a tad, the purifier had lifted himself off of the dusty ground, his eyes still not adjusted to the velvet blackness that surrounded him.

"If only I had brought a flashlight…" he muttered angrily to himself.

He walked on, spotting a blinding yellow light up ahead. After stumbling around in the velvet darkness of the mines for what felt like days, this was a welcoming sight. Cautiously, he peeked into the large, lit-up cavern of the mine. He sighed in relief.

However, said relief was short-lived when he saw the condition of the strange people residing there.

Their eyes were pure black. The poor men looked as if they hadn't slept in days, as their eyes were sunken in. They were way too skinny to be considered healthy, and had extremely long fingers. They had obviously all been addicted to sugar at some point, due to the nature of their appearances.

Batter slowly approached one of them, bat in hand. He didn't want to get into a fight unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, he needed to save his energy just in case something threatening approached him.

"Hello...?" Batter said, hesitating to tap the tiny, suited man on the shoulder.

He silently cursed under his breath. Why was he scared? The little men weren't terrifying in the slightest, what with their small stature and frail appearance.

The confidence was suddenly replaced with fear when the man spun around, wheezing terribly. A wispy, gray substance spilled from his mouth. Batter backed up in defense, eyes wide. The capped man had seen lots of things in his short lifespan, but smoke pouring out of the mouth of a malnourished mutant was certainly not one of those things.

"Shit," he yelped slightly, as his back slammed against the cool rock of the cavern. Batter's eyes darted back and forth, trying to find an escape route.

"No, wait…" The deformed person gasped, resting a hand on Batter's arm. "D-Dont go…"

The purifiers heart was racing. He quickly slapped the small hand away.

"A-ah…" the small man retracted his hand, and looked at Batter with a look of realization. "T-there's n-nothing to be afraid of. I-I couldn't h-hurt a fly, I-I swear…"

Batter stood still, back pressing so firmly into the rock, that you would think that he was trying to dissolve into the purple mineral. Never had the Batter seen such a strange creature. It was unnerving, and downright disturbing.

"Who are you…? W-What are you?" Batter finally asked, voice uncharacteristically shaky. The pale, little mutant quirked a small smile.

"U-uh… Well, I used to have a name, b-but Master Dedan told us n-not to use them a-anymore. However, y-you may refer to me by my number, 535, i-if you want to… And us a g-group are c-called Elsen," the petite male said, a frown suddenly tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Batter raised an eyebrow at this. "I see", he muttered, letting his stoic nature come into play. "Well, 535, would you care to enlighten me on where I am?"

"A-ah… Y-yes, of course, Mister…? Um, I'm sorry, but I never got your name," 535 answered, a look of frenzy beginning to form on his face.

"Batter," the taller male said, extending a hand out to the trembling Elsen. 535 looked into the Batter's dark brown eyes, and swallowed in fear. Quickly, he took ahold of the purifiers hand and shook it.

"Batter… That e-explains a l-lot actually," the Elsen chuckled awkwardly, gesturing to Batter's clothing attire. Batter did not respond to this; he only stared into 535's eyes, with a soul piercing gaze.

"R-Right…" the Elsen swallowed nervously, averting his gaze from Batter's. "W-welcome to zone 1… Well, what's left of it at least. Um, pretty much everything else was destroyed after the s-sugar c-catastrophe…" He stopped for a moment, lips pulled into a frown.

"Go on," Batter urged impatiently.

"S-so, u-uhhh… O-our leader, Mister Dedan, t-told us to retreat to the m-mines… H-he said we'd be safe i-in here. For the m-most part we, um, are… But sometimes the spectres w-wil break through our barriers and w-walls and k-kill some of us off… Um, it's very rare, b-but it does happen..."

"What's a spectre?" the capped man asked, his curiosity peaked.

Apparently 535 had been nervous, as the Batter saw him visibly tremble.

"S-spectres are t-those really nasty c-creatures. T-there a-are m-many types of them, b-but the most common ones are the ones with the b-big scaly heads, and r-red eyes…"

Batter nodded solemnly. He knew exactly what the Elsen was rambling on about. A shiver ran down the Batter's spine at the thought of the creatures that had attacked him earlier.

There were a few moment of uncomfortable silence before...

"So, how long have you been down here?" Batter questioned, looking at 535 with interest.

"A-ah… I-I don't know… I-it's been a-a long time, I know that for a fact," the Elsen paused before wistfully staring past the Batter. "Y-you know, I m-miss the o-outside world a lot… I-I remember w-when we were allowed to just be f-free to roam around. F-free to breathe the clean air, a-and swim in the seas, and r-roll around in the crisp grass, as the birds sang… And it was perfect, everything was s-so perfect and beautiful..."

Batter felt a pang of pity for the poor Elsen. He softly patted the man on the back, before walking off, leaving 535 to stare blankly into space.


End file.
